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Student Strings:
Adding Classical to the High School Playlist.
S
amuel Barber’s plaintive Adagio for
Strings — one of the most popular
pieces of American classical music —
was played at the funeral of President
John F. Kennedy and featured in the flms
The Elephant Man and Platoon. More recent
versions, via Madonna and the Dutch mixer
and producer DJ Tiësto, boosted the tem-
po and added an electronic beat to achieve
mainstream radio airplay. Yet for middle- and
high-school students at Somers, N.Y., who
heard the melancholic music performed by
the Dover String Quartet earlier in the school
year, the piece was fresh and transformative.
After hearing the Dover’s version, many stu-
dents added Adagio to their playlists.
The Dovers, who visited Somers High
School in November and March as part of
Caramoor’s Student Strings program, “just
reached out and grabbed these kids with
the music,” said their teacher, Anne Harris.
“They just sat down and played, and the mu-
sic spoke frst. They didn’t give the students
anything to attach to it, and the kids respond-
ed to the way the music made them feel.”
Many of Harris’s students, who range in age
from 14 to 18, had never seen a string quartet.
“Student after student after student told me
that the piece changed their lives,” she added.
One of those students, Marc Gorman, a
freshman who plays upright bass, called the
experience motivational. “It was interesting
to see their playing style and notice their fn-
gerings. They made lots of eye contact with
each other. I saw how important it was to not
only follow the conductor’s instructions, but
also to look at other orchestra members to
make your part work with them.”
After performing for students in Novem-
ber, the quartet, which includes violinists
Joel Link and Bryan Lee, cellist Camden
Shaw, and violist Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt,
talked about the music, ofering some schol-
arly background about the composer’s life
and the politics of the time. They answered
questions and then settled in among the stu-
dents to join in a rehearsal.
For ninth-grader Grace Dashnaw, a cel-
list, this mingling with the school orchestra
was surprising. Mr. Shaw, the Dover’s cellist,
suggested how to express phrases and ofered
technical tips, like how to hold the bow. “I
thought they were going to just listen to our
orchestra play and then give us comments,”
Ms. Dashnaw said. “But the fact that they sat
with us and played with us was a lot more in-
sightful. They could hear all our mistakes in
the section and give us individual tips rather
than group ones, so it was a lot more helpful
than I expected.”
The Dovers’ approach also surprised Ms.
Harris, who has directed the Somers High
School’s orchestra and participated in Cara-
moor’s Student Strings program for 15 years.
“Usually the quartet stands in the front of the
room and directs the music and works from
there, while I sit in the back of the room with
a score and mark it as we go forward. That
way I can hear things that I might not oth-
erwise hear. When the Dovers asked me to
conduct and said they would sit with the kids,
it was a little intimidating for me – to know I
was conducting world-class players. To have
these musicians right in our classroom, just
a few feet away from our students, it was just
unbelievable.”
The Dovers, who emerged as the grand-
prize winner of the 2010 Fischof Competi-
tion, formed at Curtis Institute of Music in
2008, when its members were just 19 years
old. In 2013 the group appeared at the Banf
International String Quartet Competition,
winning the grand prize as well as all three
By Christina Horzepa
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special prizes: the R.S. Williams & Sons
Haydn Prize for the best performance of
Haydn, the Székely Prize for the best perfor-
mance of Schubert, and the Canadian Com-
mission Prize for the best performance of
a newly commissioned work. In addition to
becoming the frst Quartet-in-Residence at
Curtis, they were chosen as Caramoor’s 14th
Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence.
Caramoor’s residency, which forms the
foundation of the Student Strings program,
also includes spring and fall performances
in the Rosen House Music Room and a com-
mission written especially for the quartet.
On July 11, they perform the world premiere
of Volume XV of Caramoor’s A String Quar-
tet Library for the 21st Century with a new
work by David Ludwig.
While the Dovers are excited about the
commissioning project and Festival concert,
they are equally happy to spend time teach-
ing. After working with the students at ten
diferent middle and high schools in Novem-
ber, they returned again in March. “When we
came back in the spring the students were a
lot more comfortable and excited to see us
again,” said Ms. Pajaro-van de Stadt. “It was a
really cool thing. It was almost like seeing an
old friend.”
Meghan Ryan, the orchestra director at
Anne M. Dorner Middle School in Ossin-
ing said that while all students in the mid-
dle school enjoyed the quartet’s visit, her
sixth-graders, especially, “were blown away
by them.” Because the quartet is young, her
students were able to connect to the musi-
cians, she explained. “There was an assump-
tion among my kids that classical music is
for older people; there’s an age barrier. Now
I point to the quartet and say ‘Look! The Do-
vers are not much older than you!’”
Although they are relatively close in age
to some of the students they teach, the Do-
vers command respect, Ms. Ryan noted, ex-
plaining how during one of the concerts Ms.
Pajaro-van de Stadt broke a string and had to
replace it. When the class ended, an excited
sixth-grader ran up to her teacher, waving the
errant string. “Look, I have their string,” the
student exclaimed. To her and the hundreds
of students participating in Student Strings,
the Dovers are rock stars, and many of the
students asked for autographs.
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